Unwanted
by LyssaOneiroi
Summary: When Sarah wished away Toby it wasn't the first time Jareth had met her. He wasn't really surprised to see her again, after all, there's only so much one person can take.
1. Chapter 1

I wasn't surprised to see her. She stood their looking at me so defiantly, just as she used to. You see, this wasn't the first time I'd met Sarah Williams. In fact, I probably know her better than anyone else in the world.

The first time Sarah was wished away it was by her Mother, she was a burden.

"Eat your dinner, Sarah!" Linda Williams held the wriggling child to her chair, her normally flawlessly made-up face wild. "Eat it or there's no dessert!"

"Dun wghn t!" Sarah struggled, mouth full of sausage, she spat it into Linda's perfect hair. Linda shrieked.

"You brat! I gave up everything for you! My acting career, my freedom… You ungrateful little brat! Well fine! Do you know what?" Linda picked Sarah up and shook her a little. "Some days I hardly think you're worth it! I wish… I wish the Goblins would come and take you away! Right now!"

The lights in the house went out and I appeared in the window, lightening flashing dramatically. My Goblins had already carried little Sarah back to the castle. As I explained the rules to the Labyrinth and the consequences to her wish, Linda kept looking greedily at the crystal in my hand- I knew she wouldn't win the game, still, I had to give her a chance. After depositing Linda at the start I flew back to the castle and found Sarah in the Throne Room. On my throne.

She was wearing a battered little hat that the Goblins must have found for her and was holding my riding crop, her short legs swung nowhere near the floor. When I appeared in front of her and glared she looked at me with her chin raised and her eyes flashing and said-

"Go 'way, can't see." And flapped a hand at me. I fought the urge to laugh.

"No, you get down. I'm the King and that's my seat."

"No," She answered slowly like I was being particularly stupid. "_I'm_ the Queen. Got a crown, see?" She pointed at her hat, "And is _my_ seat." She nodded decisively. I couldn't help a twitch of my lips.

"Why don't we share? I'm sure the throne is big enough for the both of us. You can be Queen and I'll be King." She mulled that over for a second and nodded.

"Guess that's OK." I sat down beside her.

"I'm Jareth. What's your name?" I already knew of course but still, it was polite to ask. Not that I suppose she'd notice whether I was polite or not, she seemed to like the Goblins and they belched so loudly the walls shook having a competition to see who could get her to giggle the longest.

"Queen Sarah!" She answered grandly, fiddling with her 'crown'. "You King Jareth!"

"Do I need a hat too?" I asked her quietly with a grin.

"Crown! No, only _Queen's_ get crowns and you not Queen." She explained exasperatedly. The little mortal was quite fun.

"Oh!" I nodded gravely. Then she asked about her Mummy.

"Jareth? Where's My Mummy?" Oh God, I had absolutely no idea how to explain this, most of the wished away were either asleep, too young to talk, disabled, abused or clueless as to what was going on so I'd only had to explain this a few times.

I decided to be selfish and tell the truth. It'd make her hate her Mummy but I was sick of people thinking I was the bad guy, plus she'd be a Goblin before long anyway, so I said.

"Your Mummy's very mean and selfish. She doesn't want to look after you so she gave you to me, it's not your fault Sarah, you're the very best little girl in the world and you get to live with me here, won't that be fun?"

I regret I told her that now but oh well. She cried a bit and I consoled her some more and eventually, with help from the Goblins cheered her back up, she had us wrapped around her adorable little finger. I hated Linda more than ever.

The Thirteen hours went too quickly and I regretfully gave Linda her dreams- becoming an actress- wiped her memory and prepared to turn Sarah into a Goblin, then the Labyrinth stopped me.

_**Don't.**_

That was all it said. I obeyed readily, I was just about to send a Goblin to prepare a room for her when it spoke again.

_**Don't. **_This time I was a lot less eager.

"What do you mean _**Don't**_?! She's a wished away! What else can I do?" There was something I could do but I hated even the thought of it. Put her back? Never! The Labyrinth pushed at my mind, I could feel a portion of the land start to sink and dissolve. It was very serious, so I gave Sarah back to her Father. I didn't wipe her memories, though, and told her to call me if she needed to. She called me almost every day and I played with her in her bedroom, I looked forwards to the daily visit as much as she did and perhaps more.

The second time Sarah was wished away it was by her Father, she was a memory.

Robert flinched as Sarah demanded a different ice-cream, her expression so much like her Mother's.

"No, Sarah! You've got one, stick with it!"

"The Goblins want this one." She told him.

"Goblins!" Robert hit the kitchen table. "Goblins don't exist! Stop making excuses, grow up Sarah!" She was six.

"I wish the Goblins would take you away, right now!" Something vanished from Sarah's little face then, just before she was whisked away. I burst in through the window and looked at Robert. He had no imagination. He would not best the Labyrinth, would probably not even get as far as his selfish ex-wife.

When I got back to the castle Sarah's eyes were still stony but she was smiling and playing so I ignored it until she wanted to talk about it. She got round to it very abruptly.

"Does Daddy not want me?" She asked, throwing a crystal into a crowd of Goblins. She looked at me for a moment and nodded, though I had not said a word. She didn't cry but I still knelt beside her and said.

"I want you." She hugged me sniffing a bit.

When the thirteen hours were up I was resolved. I gave Robert his dreams- a high-paying job in a bank, dull mortal- and sent him back with his memory gone. I told a Goblin to ready a room for Sarah and ignored the Labyrinth's

_**Don't**_.

I felt land start to crumble and I ignored it, then the Labyrinth made the walls shake, I ignored it. Then I felt it send plants to wrap around Sarah's neck and choke her. I paid attention then. I sent her home and kept a careful watch on Robert. I still visited, more and more frequently. I gave her a small read book that one of the runners had written. She laughed as I read it to her.

The third time Sarah was wished away, it was by her Father's Girlfriend, she was a nuisance.

"Not even your Mother wanted you, brat!" Lucy snarled. "You're a baby. What kind of rubbish is this?" She picked up Labyrinth with two manicured fingers.

"Goblins?! Hah! They're not real!"

"They _are_!" Sarah screamed, snatching the book back.

"I wish they would come and take you away! Right now. Otherwise someone else will when I marry Robert."

Something died in Sarah's eyes then, she was seven. I made that woman suffer for it. I could see from her face she didn't care enough to make the journey, I'd be surprised if she got past the gate.

Sarah was crying in the Escher Room when I got to the castle. I wasn't sure what I should say so I just pulled her into my lap and held her for a while. When the thirteen hours were up, I dropped the woman in an Oubliette and argued with the Labyrinth for an hour.

This time I burnt the vines to ashes but unless I took on the Labyrinth itself and killed it or me, I couldn't stop it reaching her heart and stopping it. I sent her home.

Sarah started to hurt herself. She'd cry in her bedroom and cut her hands, pull her hair, scratch her face, hit her head. I wanted her to stop it so much I took her memories and stopped myself from visiting. I left the book but I justified it to myself that it wasn't that accurate. I left a few toys as well, just small things. I hoped that if she forgot she'd be happy again but something was still dead. Even though she no longer hurt herself she tried to escape in other ways. At first I was pleased. She'd always had such an active imagination but soon I saw it was to escape her life, retreating into her mind. Her Father married and I couldn't comfort her as she sat and stared out of the window, her face white.

I was almost glad when she wished her brother away, she was so withdrawn… Then she sneered my title and I was so… wounded. She won, my little Sarah. She won and the Labyrinth and I were both thinking the same.

_**Stay.**_

She didn't. My heart shattered, the Labyrinth howled. Then I saw something that made it almost worthwhile. As she danced with her friends I saw the thing I thought was dead light up her beautiful eyes.

_**Something that just popped into my mind. I haven't been able to update my fics for a while 'cause my computer was being weird so sorry about that. Like it? Hate it? Think I should barbeque my brain? (As opposed to th**__**e Tibetan method of boiling it) I'm not sure whether to leave it or continue so please review and tell me what you think.**_


	2. Chapter 2

SPOV

I laughed as Hoggle told me about a Fierie's encounter with a group of Goblins. Bowling had apparently been introduced to the Underground.

Only a week since I left. It seems inherently wrong to even think the words. _I left the Labyrinth._ I had to, I suppose. I couldn't have left Toby here alone, my adventure helped me realize how much I would miss Toby if he were gone. It also made me think how devastated Dad and Mum would be if I vanished. Karen probably wants me gone, the hag, I'm surprised she doesn't wish me away herself. Dad has terrible taste in women, I remember Lucy, an ex-girlfriend of Dad. She was horrible, Dad sent her away though, once I told him how awful she was. He loves me so.

Dad and Mum love me, they've proved it and it's real. Not like that fake, distraction the Goblin King used, it still disgusts me, the way he just threw around promises like that.

I thought once that Dad hated me, then I realised he was just another thing I'd taken for granted. I have to hand it to Jareth. Evil he may be, but his lessons certainly stick.

I hummed happily to myself as I skipped downstairs.

"Slow down, Sarah. You might break something." Dad said, looking up from his paper. I grinned, he was so concerned in the morning before Karen got her claws into him, maybe there was hope yet. Karen was bustling around the kitchen making breakfast.

"Good morning, Sarah." Karen smiled, that was for Dad's benefit, it amazed me sometimes how she acted just to fool him.

"Ready for school?" She asked, still smiling annoyingly.

"Does it _look_ like it?" I replied. _Honestly_, I was in my pyjamas for Christ's sake.

"Don't talk like that to your mother!" Dad slammed his newspaper down, he was completely taken in by her, it was so sad.

"Step-mother." I reminded him, Karen's face fell. I felt bad for a moment and then I remembered. Evil-step-mother, like Cinderella.

I went back up to my bedroom to get changed, mood completely ruined by Karen. There was an owl in the tree outside, I smiled at it. An odd time of day for it but oh well.

I set off to school earlier than usual. Everything was so beautiful but it paled in comparison to the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth wasn't beautiful in a green way, like the park, but it was like… home. I wanted to stay there forever. I suppose it's because I met my first real friends there.

I wandered slowly, drawing out my walk to school until I was very nearly late, still breathing in a lovely smell- like roses in full-bloom. I was almost sad to go inside, a quiet, serene sort of sad. It reminded me of the seasons, I was leaving a beautiful summer to enter a different, but just as beautiful autumn.

I was smiling as I sat down for registration. It didn't matter so much that I was sat alone, as I had been for years. I felt happier than I'd been in a long time. Since… when?

Mum left to get a better job, she wasn't suited to being a mother, I was happy after she left though. I was unhappy when Lucy came along, but it was before that. I…can't remember.

I concentrated on every sound, every movement in my classroom, forcing my mind away from my thoughts, not really knowing why I did so. The teachers were quite surprised at my participation and it made me feel almost buoyant listening to their praise where before it had only been criticism. I was quite surprised at how little I had absorbed before. I tried to remember what the cafeteria looked like and couldn't even remember the colour of the walls.

The downside to my new awareness was I could hear what everyone said; around me, across me… about me.

That's when I remembered why I didn't listen in the first place.

It was odd, I can remember people being mean to me.

Monica saying my mother was a slut.

Louise saying no-one liked me.

Adam saying I was a baby.

Lauren saying I was ugly.

Samantha saying I was fat.

Lucy saying Dad would get rid of me.

But I they left, I can't remember what happened to them.

Now, Ryah was telling all of her friends that I was a self-harmer. That she'd seen the scars a year ago but that I'd had plastic surgery or something. How ridiculous. I laughed, unfortunately I picked the wrong moment.

"You think that's funny?!" Yvonne had just tripped and spilt Bolognese down her expensive top. Her pretty, very heavily made-up face was twisted in rage.

"Lay off, Yvonne." Holly said from behind her. "It's just Sarah. I bet she saw a fairy do a back-flip or something and laughed at the same time."

"Probably." Another girl sneered. "I heard her whore of a mother sends her drugs and she's pretty much permanently high."

"Yeah." Yvonne smirked. "Her Daddy had to pay the school to take her on. What can you expect with parents like that? Her father's like, a complete bastard. I bet he was screwing around on her mother for years and she was worse. She actually went off with some rich bloke, how much more of a whore can you _be_?"

"Her parents didn't even want her. They had a fight in the divorce over who'd get stuck with her."

I could feel my eyes start to fill with tears. I was furious, mortified and hurt at once. I wanted to be swallowed by the floor or bury my head for the next decade. I ran out of the room, their taunts echoing in my mind. None of it was true but it hurt. I sat in the toilets, tears streaming down my face. I tried to imagine being somewhere else. A castle… or a faerie forest. All I could see was their faces. I thought of the Labyrinth but all I could summon up was the Goblin Kings face, his mocking face. But… it changed, the expression was all wrong. I'd never seen him look like that.

The Goblin King…Jareth.

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JPOV

I watched as Sarah laughed, her eyes filled with mirth. The last time she had laughed so was so many years ago I'd almost forgotten how lovely it was.

She skipped downstairs; of course the first words out of Robert's mouth were a criticism. He didn't deserve her. I was a little confused when Sarah smiled, she hated her father and rightly so, then she was rude to her step-mother. Now that _really_ baffled me. I thought she understood the lesson the Labyrinth gave her, I understood why she wished Toby away but I certainly didn't want her to make a habit of it. Toby's psyche wasn't really an issue, his mother dotes on him, there's not a chance he'll feel underappreciated. I don't know quite what Karen was thinking marrying Robert, he doesn't deserve her and he certainly doesn't deserve Sarah or Toby.

She left the house a little early today, I flew after her. She still had the bounce in her step she'd picked up in the Labyrinth. How drab and dreary this world is, no wonder she was always so eager to leave it. A breeze ruffled my feathers, the stench of fumes filled my nose… beak. It was revolting. I changed the air around my Sarah, everything smelt like the Labyrinth now. I changed the trees slightly too, focusing the light more so everything shone gold. She seemed to like it, reluctant to leave. She was so beautiful in that instant my heart ached. She went inside. I followed.

I was there all morning, proud of my little Sarah. She was utterly focused, in the same world as everyone else in a way she hadn't for years. She glowed as her teachers praised her and I almost fell out of my tree I was so pleased. She went off to lunch, I listened with anger to some of the stories the other mortals were spreading about her but she didn't seem to mind. Then she laughed. Another mortal took exception to this, why I have no idea, it doesn't matter either. All that matters is that those mortals caused tears to well in her eyes.

Black fury gripped me as she ran. I flew in the window screeching at the mortals who hurt her. They screamed. Clouds rolled in outside. My talons flexed and I clawed at the pathetic mortals.

I vanished before anyone could throw me out

I'd be visiting their dreams tonight.

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**Thank you for the reviews. It's nice to feel appreciated. When I read it through, Jareth sounded very stalkerish, obsessing over her smiles and laughs. I'll probably include the girls dreams next chapter as well.**

**Please review! (I have now resorted to begging)**

**LyssaOneiroi. **


	3. Chapter 3

SPOV

I heard screaming from the dining hall so I rushed out to see what was going on. Yvonne was holding the side of her face, blood trickling through her fingers. I couldn't help it, I felt a vindictive sort of pleasure as I watched all of the people who had laughed at me moan or sob. I was horrified at myself afterwards, of course, those sorts of thoughts… I remember feeling the same about my mother, my father… lots of people. Karen? I can't remember.

I can't remember a lot. It scares me that the last god knows how many years I can only remember as a blur.

I can remember my mum's face twisted in rage.

I can remember my dad's face sneering at me.

I can remember lot's of people, all staring down at me, snarling words that cut like daggers.

Then I can remember a hauntingly familiar pair of eyes, soft as they look at me.

And then it goes foggy.

It's incredibly irritating.

Yvonne was giving a sobbing account of what happened to one of the teachers.

"-This huge owl burst through the window and raked it's claws-"

My heart froze and then started beating fast. Owl? There was something on the ground. I stepped forwards and grabbed it, backing away quickly. A white owl's feather. I had the strongest sense of de-ja-vu as I stood there, over a feather. I ran out of the school, no-one called me back or stopped me. I ran all the way home still clutching the feather tight in my fist. I sat at my vanity and laid the feather on it, smoothing it out with trembling fingers. I stared at it for a second and then carefully put it in my drawer.

What the hell was happening?

I watched as she ran holding my feather, I was absurdly pleased that she was so gentle with it. I remember when I flew into her bedroom when she was around seven. She'd squealed like a pig and dived under her covers. When I didn't move she'd peeked out and caught sight of my eyes. She crept out as though afraid she'd startle me and slowly extended her hand. She touched my feathers very gently and then snatched her hand back, like I'd bitten her. She was amazed when I changed back in front of her; she was quite disappointed when I said I couldn't turn her into one as well.

I flew back underground and started to prepare those disgusting mortals dreams, no crystal ballroom for them.

_They ran and ran, branches clawing at their clothes, roots tangling their feet.__ Their terror built slowly and suddenly they dropped. Shapes grasped at their bodies pushing them further down until they landed with a thud. Shadows raced around them, sliding, tiny hands scratched and tugged. The shadows leapt and smothered them cackling with glee as their screams were muffled under the onslaught. All the time they could see two glowing eyes staring._

"_Sarah." A voice hissed, but it was the wrong name. Confusion turned to panic, they're bodies were frozen, watching and feeling as creatures tore at their skin and flesh but unable to stop it…_

* * *

"I'm sorry Sarah. We shouldn't have treated you like that Yesterday-" The girl's eyes darted around, searching the room, jumping at the slightest movement. She'd been the third to apologise this morning. I just smiled understandingly. It was quite obvious what had happened.

My confidence had risen after all these years and now no one saw me as a victim. I was almost grateful then, but I remembered.

He'd stolen my brother.

He didn't deserve my gratitude.

I was starting to think maybe I shouldn't have taken her memories. When I first took them I was overjoyed to see her regain some of her naiveté, I convinced myself that this was her second chance. Of course, I didn't quite take into account the effect a child's trust in an almost grown body, the effect on her... and other people.

It made some hate her outright, resenting what they had lost through their own mistakes.

It made some manipulate her, take advantage.

And it made precious few love her.

Which, after all, was what she really needed, or rather, she needed evidence of it, because she was certainly more loved than any of those other pathetic mortals.

Perhaps a gift... ah, it would be amusing to see how she would react if I tried that again. She very much relied on first impressions, you see, this time around I hadn't really made the right-

No.

I decided to take a short-cut home from school. The subway didn't smell very nice, but it was a much quicker way. I had decided that the magic in the air yesterday was Jareth. He was trying to entice me back there- but I would not go. No matter how much I wanted to, it was a trick and I would defeat him again.

I was so caught up in my musing that I didn't notice a man until he almost staggered into me. His eyes were unfocused, so I was a little concerned.

"Are you alright?" I asked, grasping his arm. He grinned and his reeking breath washed out f his moth and filled my nose. I coughed slightly trying not to be rude, although he was scaring me. He leant forwards a little more until I almost fell over from his weight.

A white owl swooped down and landed on his head, scratching viciously.

"Jareth? Jareth, stop!" I cried, furious. How dare he?

Sure enough, the owl stopped but with a small pop, none of the effects I had seen in the Labyrinth, the man was gone and Jareth himself stood in his place.

"How dare you?!" I raged. "I was trying to help him and you get all jealous-"

Jareth watched me, something like confusion in his gaze. I supposed he was trying to trick me again. I gasped as I realized something, I had said his name.

There was only one thing to do.

I had read that the Fae do not respond well to Cold Iron or Salt. I didn't have Iron, but after yesterday, I had filled my pockets with salt and I threw it at him. It made him take a step or two back and the skin of his wrist touched the railing behind him. It must have been Iron, because he screamed as though he were in agony. I felt guilty but then remembered what he had done to that poor man.

Jareth seemed to almost dissolve before my eyes, and with him, all his power left the Mortal World.

My heart constricted as emotions I had not felt for years filled it and broke it all over again.

I understood what I had failed to before and the pain was so great it was all I could do to crumple to the filthy ground, my hair soaking up the grime.

And I cried because that's what children do when they're forced to grow up, I had forgotten that I was already grown.

It would be the last time I cried, I silently vowed when the pain lessened enough for me to think.

Several hours later the Police found me, still pressed on the ground. Asleep.

I would have thought of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, but I remembered the other stories now. A tragedy when even my fairy tales desert me.

They called it a coma. I didn't care.

I didn't care about anything anymore.

Jareth

It took me months to recover.

Months of endless worrying, most of which I spent unable to even watch her.

Watching, I found, was worse. I could see her dying, slipping away from me even as I sat in a soft bed and she in a cold, white room.

Her skin was as pale as the room and her bones protruded; those mortals could do nothing for her.

I waited until I was finally strong enough to make the trip and appeared at the foot of her bed. I carefully disentangled her from the awful metals the mortals had pushed into her flesh and tried to lift her away from the iron.

I trembled from the effort but I didn't dare waste the magic.

I shifted us away.

I had no idea where we landed, but we did. Just before I slipped into unconsciousness; my precious Sarah opened her glorious eyes and whispered my name, her face lighting up. So beautiful and ethereal it made my heart ache to look at her.

As I faded away it didn't matter where we were or what would happen.

We would survive.


End file.
